Dragon 5 Chapter 29

I barely registered the ride to Wissahickon park as Sabrina’s body made mine nearly combust with heat.I found myself appreciating Morgana’s driving in a new way as Sabrina bounced and shifted from side to side with Morgana’s sharp turns.

“Guess the council has it all on lockdown,” Morgana commented as the van came to a screeching halt.

Ahead of us, there were lines of military jeeps with mounted guns and sirens manning them.

“Shift as you get out,” I told the dragonettes as I placed Sabrina to the side.

As we became physically separated, my mind was suddenly clear of lust, focusing on what I saw beyond the jeeps. A huge vortex of magic cascaded over the park.

I clambered over the dragons, shifting into my gold dragon knight form and stomping forward.

The closest siren saluted me. “Dragon King. We have orders to let you through.”

The others filed out of the van behind me.

Morgana tossed her keys to another siren. “Park it for me. And don’t even think about scratching it.”

I rolled my eyes. That van took hundreds of bullets and didn’t leave a scratch. But it was Morgana’s prized car.

The dragons stood behind me in their hybrid forms as the line of jeeps parted for us. One jeep peeled away from the rest and came forward to pick us up. There was a siren waiting for us in the back.

I hopped in the back with the others; the jeep sank under the weight of four dragons. “What’s the situation?”

“Vampires swarmed the city. They just completely overwhelmed everyone instantly. Thousands of them. They ran over any defenses that we had in place and were able to turn more humans. The concentration seems to be here at the park though,” the siren laid down the basic details.

“Current strategy?” I asked.

“Uh…” He paused as if my question was far above his pay grade. “My group is keeping humans away as a fucking war starts. We have reports of several groups clearing the city ev-even a l-lich.” The very mention of T had the siren stuttering.

“Ah, yeah. Don’t worry about him. The lich is a friend of mine. He’s killing vampires by ripping their flesh off of them and turning them into skeletons.” I realized the added details may not bring full comfort to the nervous siren, but he nodded stiffly.

“So he’s on our side?” The siren seemed skeptical.

Morgana interjected, “Absolutely. T wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

I begged to differ, considering he was killing vampires, but I left it alone. “What’s the situation here?”

“We got here and laid down fire into the park, but the vampires just shrugged it off. Some escaped into Faerie, and their masses were hard to wheedle down. But then the elves slammed down a huge shield around them, cutting them off from the city and keeping them contained.”

“Yeah, but it’s not currently cutting them off from the portal. They want into the fae lands more than anything. That’s why they’re here.” I eyed the current shield.

The siren shrugged. “We didn’t have the firepower to take them on. I think they’ll drop the shield once we have some of the bigger hitters like you here.”

The siren pulled up closer to the park, and the huge magical vortex seemed to end in a shimmering dome that flickered as vampires tried to get out of the park. The lower section of the park was completely teeming with vampires. And I could spot fighting and struggling among them.

Based on the party, I knew they were fighting each other to get to the portal that held the fae world.

“Bring us to wherever the elven command is set up.” I felt my marks and sensed Kelly hurrying in this direction. And Helena had already arrived, circling high above.I tried to find her with my eyes, but the vortex of magic made it difficult to spot her amid them, even though I knew where to look.

The siren relayed my order to the one driving.

“Do you think you can take them all?” Sabrina asked, her eyes wide as she took in all the vampires below.

“I’m going to lay down some runs of dragon fire. That ought to take out a lot of them.”

“Or push them all into the Faerie,” Morgana commented, watching the situation closely. “There must be something on the other end of the portal, or they wouldn’t still be here.”

My eyes flickered to the area where I knew we’d find the portal. “Yeah. Hopefully, Maeve and the others are okay.”

“What’s the Faerie realm like?” I asked, realizing we may end up taking a trip through it.

“It isn’t often that outsiders are able to enter,” Polydora spoke. “But my understanding is that Faerie is split into two major parts.”

“Summer and Winter.” I grinned, happy to know something about the paranormal world.

“No.” Polydora popped my bubble. “There is a large area that is tamed, about the size of Germany is how I’ve heard it sized. Then beyond that there is a boundless, wild, untamed Faerie. It is incredibly easy to get lost among it. Paths aren’t straight, and turning around doesn’t bring you back the way you came.”

I paused. “That sounds impossible to inhabit.”

She shrugged. “There are some who do. Winter and Summer are ever expanding their tamed territory, taking back the wild. It is important that, if we enter the Faerie, you never go into the fae wilds.”

Morgana cleared her throat. “But you were partially correct. The part of the Faerie that the queens control is split between Summer and Winter. They push on each other's territories constantly with their war.”

“So, where does the portal exit?” I asked. It seemed like a lot of power to give to one side versus the other.

But the surrounding paranormals just looked at each other, clearly not sure of the answer. Wonderful, I thought, hoping it didn’t drop us in the middle of a battle line or something.

The jeep came to a stop where a tent had been erected, and a dozen old elves were working magic, constantly reinforcing the barrier.

Sebastian was standing back, watching with his arms crossed, and he turned to see me approach. “You,” he scowled.

“I knew you missed me.” I hopped out of the Jeep. “Good news. I’ve gotten rid of our Beelzebub issue for the moment.”

At least, I was pretty sure I had. Helena seemed to think so, and she knew more about how demons worked than I did.

The elf’s eyebrows shot up. “Beelzebub?!” he hissed.

“Yeah. Recent development. I may not have had time to report it more broadly,” I continued on. “Helena, the nephilim, has also been freed.”

I looked up at the sky, trying to spot her once more, but failing.

“What’s the situation here?” I brought my eyes back to the barrier.

“I’m not sure this is a bigger problem than Beelzebub in our city. Are you certain that he’s gone?” Sebastian put aside his issue with me, focusing back on the issues of the city.

“Helena dealt the finishing blow. Though he made it seem like only part of his soul had come.”

Sebastian nodded. “Yes, that would give me confidence. Demon princes rarely enter our world completely. They are far too cautious for that.”The old elf looked at the current situation again. “I assume you want the barrier down so that you can get in there?”

I paused, trying to decide the best course of action. “Maybe just open up the top for me? I’d like to see if I can’t clear out many of them with my fire,” I suggested.

Sebastian rubbed his chin. “We can collapse it starting from the top and see how slow it goes down. But at most, we are talking a minute before it’s fully gone.”

“Perfect.” I grinned, feeling a little feral edge to my face.

I was ready to cook the vampires below.

“My king.” Amira slammed her hand to her chest. “We would love to fly with you.”

I had been ready to ask them. “Of course. Let’s get ready. Sebastian, give us the signal when you will start.”

The elf nodded. The normal hate he had for me was replaced by a sense of duty in solving this crisis.

Walking away from the tent, I stretched myself out. It had been a few months since I’d gone entirely dragon. I realized that I understood more of what Herm had been saying when we were at the fae party. The city did make it hard to stretch your wings.

“Zach.” Sabrina caught my arm. “Stay safe.” She kissed my cheek and pulled away with a blush blazing to life on her cheeks.

Morgana was next. “I’ll be right behind you as you head into the fae realm.”

I snorted; she knew me too well. I fully planned on charging into the fae realm as soon as the vampires outside of it were less of a problem.

My bones cracked as my mates stepped away to give me room, and I rapidly expanded. Gold scales grew along with me as my face elongated and an enormous tail sprouted from the bottom of my spine. Stretching out, my wings unfurled from my back.

I continued to grow, towering over my two mates. They were only the size of one of my claws when I was finished. My scales were gold, but with a little focus, the gold bled away. Aspects of red flickered along the scales, showing my full dragon heritage.

Polydora, Trina, and Amira shifted beside me.

None of them quite matched my size, but Polydora was certainly trying as she held her head aloft.

“You are showing off your nature,” Polydora stated, squinting her draconic eyes at me. “It looks good.”

I smirked but became distracted, as I could sense Kelly growing closer.

“Alpha!” a lumbering brown werewolf shouted at the front of the pack as hundreds of werewolves charged behind her and echoed her. “Alpha-alpha.”

She shifted as she stopped before me, and so did the red wolf that had been keeping pace with her. Taylor gave me a wink and a little flirty wave of her fingers.

“The elves are going to drop the shield, and we are going to thin these vampires out. As soon as the shield is down, we push through them and into the Faerie realm.” I gave Kelly the rough plan. I had no idea what was happening inside the Faerie realm, and I planned to find out.

She grinned and howled only for the rest of her pack to echo her. “I’ll be right behind you, alpha.”

“I will too, alpha-alpha.” Taylor bowed, her naked form flowing downward.

Kelly only rolled her eyes, but it seemed she’d given up on correcting the ‘alpha-alpha’ thing. “Get in there, my mate.” Kelly gave my foot a gentle push.

I chuckled and crouched low before launching myself as high as I could. Stretching out my wings, I beat them a few times, sending out a torrent of wind that ripped up the tents below. I cringed a little, hoping they wouldn’t be mad that I’d destroyed their temporary structure.

But I had a job to do. I circled, climbing high into the sky. As I moved up, I noticed a black cloud that seemed to be crawling towards us from the north. I assumed that was T heading towards us.

The three dragonettes joined me in the air as we circled over the barrier erected by the elves.

A magical firework lit up the sky, and I knew that was my sign. They were about to bring the barrier down. We hovered just over the top as the smallest hole formed; the barrier peeling away as the spell collapsed.

Not wasting time, I dove, my dragonettes close behind me. I gathered my fire in my throat before swooping lower and releasing a gout of fire that exploded out of my mouth under high pressure. I nearly filled the inside of the magical barrier.

Through the flickering flames, I could see vampires throwing up red shields to protect themselves and those around them. My fire was powerful, but with such distance and spread, many of them could huddle around the shields and survive.

My dragonettes worked to fire on the vampires as well, but it had a similar effect.

My scales shifted from red and gold to silver and white as I banked my wings hard, coming around for a second pass nearly as soon as Amira laid down her blanket of death fog.

I spewed freezing fog into the collapsing dome, turning it into the largest snow globe ever. And as soon as my breath cut off, I was already coming back around for another, my scales shifting to blue and bronze.

Lighting crackled around my jaw as I built up another blast, but this time, I dove straight into the center of the mess as bolts of lightning raced from my mouth like the most epic thunderstorm ever seen. The bolts arced between vampires and lighting up the park.

I landed with an enormous thud as the barrier finally collapsed, taking in the scene around me. My wings beat hard, throwing vampires everywhere.

Charred and frozen vampires were scattered all over the field, but many were pushing and shoving each other, trying to cram themselves through the portal into the Faerie realm. Any that couldn’t get away turned and gave it one last go, charging me.

I let loose a roar that shook the earth and filled the air with more arcs of lightning just as Kelly and her wolves came sprinting down the hill. Vampires tried to leap onto me like ticks and bite, and the deep howl that came from Kelly made me proud. My mate was a true Alpha.

The werewolves came from behind them and crushed the remaining vampires as I swatted them with my massive paws, trying not to take out werewolves in the process.

I found myself feeling cramped, trapped in the middle of the battle on the ground. A vampire clung to my snout, even as I tried to shake him.

“Hold still, alpha-alpha!” someone shouted, and I froze as Taylor’s red werewolf form latched onto the vampire and tore him off my face, only to roll and land on top of him. She emptied his chest cavity of any organs with a single swipe.

She grinned up at me. “You are impressive, alpha-alpha.”

I snorted at the compliment. “Now I just need not to crush any of you on my way to the portal.” It would crush Kelly if I killed one of her wolves.

The field had become utter chaos as the wolves tore through the vampires, and I tried to figure out the best way to make it to the portal.

“Make way for the alpha-alpha!” Taylor shouted, ending her command with a piercing howl and running ahead of me.

Surprisingly, the wolves parted, throwing their combatants to the side or completely abandoning them in my wake. I had no qualm snapping my maw down at any vampires on my way as I made myself towards the portal.

Taylor happily led me like a truck escorting oversized loads, running in front of me and howling commands.

The vampires caught on that any in my way didn’t fare well and joined in moving aside, making it all a little easier.One vampire tried to jump Taylor, but I managed to catch him with a claw, and in my attempt to tear him off of Taylor, I tore him in half.

“Thanks, alpha-alpha. Almost there,” she cheered, far peppier than I’d ever seen her before.

Three other bodies landed near the portal as my honor guard dropped in their hybrid forms, making a much more graceful appearance.

Behind them, a pair of trees leaned slightly, their branches twisted together. All my senses were screaming at me; there was a massive amount of mana flowing around them.

I looked back, wanting to make sure my mates were okay. The battle still raged. Morgana had gotten caught up working with Kelly. The two actually fought together very well.

I wanted to let loose more blasts of dragon breath over the crowd, but I couldn’t risk harming the wolves, and they seemed to have a simple time killing the vampires.

“My king. None of these possessed the power of a bloodlord. The stronger vampires are still alive.” Polydora looked at the portal warily. “Allow us to head through first.”

I nodded, and she darted in with her hybrid form.

“So, multiple colors?” Taylor asked, looking me up and down. “Now you are bronze and blue.”

“Multiple colors,” I agreed. “Long story.”

“How about you tell me over a few drinks some time?” Taylor made her shot.

“Did you really just ask me out?” I chuckled as I shrank back down to my dragon knight form. I sure as shit wasn’t fitting through the portal as my dragon.

Taylor shrugged. “A girl has to try if she wants to get into the Dragon King’s harem. So, drink?”

Polydora ducked back through the portal amid Trina and Amira, scowling at Taylor.

“Rain check. And Scarlett has to give the okay,” I told her and focused on Polydora, who was lightly dusted with snow.

“We are in Winter’s realm. There’s no sign of the vampires, but there is an enormous palace just outside the portal. I think we may be right outside the Winter court,” she reported.

I shifted my scales back to silver and white, bracing for a freezing cold. “Let’s go.”

“Be safe, alpha-alpha. I’ll hold the portal and wait for that rain check!” Taylor stood on her tiptoes as she waved to us.